Post your favorite COIN book and related coin!

Several books I discovered early on my coin journey inspired my interest in particular areas of researching, appreciating and collecting. This book by Charles Seltman really got me interested in artistic Greek coins. This book is still available for reasonable prices.



Most of the coins it features are rare and expensive, so when I came across one of the most unusual coins in it I could not resist getting it. I believe these tetradrachms are known only from one hoard of 42 pieces found in 1964. Silvia Hurter published this article on them in 1966, available here:

http://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=snr-003:1966:45#33

The hoard was found near the ocean and most are fairly corroded. This makes this coin very difficult to photograph in a way that conveys how it appears in reality. Let me say it looks way more awesome sitting in your hand than it does in these photos. It has a very classical Greek feeling to it in person. Here is my best attempt:

Ionia, Klazomenai, c. 386-301 BC, AR Tetradrachm, 14.86 gm
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo facing slightly left
Rev: Swan standing left, preening its wings
Hurter 17, V5/R10 (this coin)
Very Rare, Fine Style
Ex. David Herman Collection, CNG Sale 73, September 13, 2006, lot 321
Ex Kunker Sale 94, September 27, 2004
Vourla (Urla) Hoard of 1964 (IGCH 1210)

Here are the pages of the book that inspired me, with the coin in place.




Some in hand photos.





okay, enough geeking out over this coin, tell us about your COIN book experiences!

John

 

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Very nice (and rare) coin and wonderful tie-in to the book. Very cool!

 

Alright, I'm game. I really enjoy this book by Jasper Burns, Great Women of Imperial Rome: Mothers and Wives of the Caesars. Each of the chapters in the book was originally published as a series of biographical and numismatic articles in The Celator about 15 years ago. These articles only fueled my interest in collecting coins of the empresses.



And here is a related coin, Agrippina I. AE Sestertius. 27.92 gm, 34.8 mm. 7h. Rome mint. Struck under Claudius, 42-54 AD. Draped bust right.
Obverse: AGRIPPINA M F GERMANICI CAESARIS, bare-headed and draped bust right.
Reverse: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR P IMP P P around large SC.
RIC I 102 (Claudius); BMCRE 219 (Claudius); Cohen 3.


The book and the coin:



The book is illustrated with copious numismatic examples:

 

Nicola Ignarra's De Palaestra Neapolitana, 1770 (I can't read it, but it means "On the Wrestling School in Naples"). He was first to advocate the man-faced bull was always Acheloios. Here's the plates from my copy (cropped):



And here is my favorite coin today and most days, a bronze tetras of the Sileraians, mid 4th century, featuring Acheloios Silaros Himera as a man-faced bull:

 

I suppose you could make a case that Seltman chose his cover art from the dekadrachm but I prefer to think he was honoring my Akragas bronze.

 

My coin tastes are a tad expensive...

 

I will post a book that covers cast bronze from Italy that I bought this year. I have wanted Le Monete Del Italia Antica by G Garrucci for several years. A couple of pre-money bronze items are shown with illustrations in the book.

The Aes Rude on the right has a +. The one on the left has a + and a C. I did not do a good job of showing the crescent in this pic.

Turns out this page also has a rammo secco bar also.

 

Mine are...
Numismatic Art of Persia, "The Sunrise Collection" Part One 650BC-650AD

Related coin...
AV Daric 14mm./8.35g. circa 480-55BC
Archaemenid Persian Empire
Darius I

 

@panzerman , that Daric must have a great feel to it at 8g. Nice coin. Well done.

 

A great selection of books and coins so far!

This is such a cool community. ..

 

Thanks! I had to cut quite a few lawns to get that one!

 

One favorite, hmm? The book I use most often is Keith Emmett's Alexandrian Coins (2001). He's working on another book which will catalog Alexandrian varieties from Elagabalus through Domitius Domitianus. A few of my coins will be in that book .

A tetradrachm of Lucius Verus with Serapis Pantheos reverse, posing with the reverse of an Antoninus Pius/Serapis Pantheos drachm from Emmett's page about the many depictions of Serapis:


Group shot of some favorite books:



Seltman, Charles Theodore. Masterpieces of Greek Coinage. Essay and Commentary. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1949

Kraay, Colin M., and Max Hirmer. Greek Coins. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1966

Head, Barclay V. Historia Numorum: A Manual of Greek Numismatics, New and Enlarged Edition. Chicago: Argonaut, Inc., Publishers; 1967

Emmett, Keith Alexandrian Coins. Wisconsin: Clio's Cabinet, 2001.

Sayles, Wayne G. Ancient Coin Collecting, 2nd Edition. Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 2003

Sayles, Wayne G. Ancient Coin Collecting II: Numismatic Art of the Greek World, 2nd Edition. Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 2007

Sayles, Wayne G. Ancient Coin Collecting IV: Roman Provincial Coins. Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 1998

I thought I'd love owning some SNG volumes. Because I have a special interest in ancient Egyptian coins, I bought SNG Copenhagen volume 8. It was expensive, is very large and difficult to store, and I don't use it often. It is strictly a cataloging tool, with no interesting history or amusing anecdotes.

 

I could respond to @TIF with the same book (i.e. Emmet's Alexandrian coins), being the proud owner of the octodrachm illustrated in his book





Q

 

I will be forever envious of this!

 

Some really good coin literature here. So far I only have one book on ancients, something I need to fix. All my other books are on modern coins.

 

I have a digital copy of that book. One of the first books I got when I got into ancients and focused on the ladies.

Still like the roman ladies of course.

 

I just ordered a copy of the Roman Ladies book. I always enjoyed collecting their coins.

 

Man, ya gotta love the ladies, eh?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Numismatics-Ancient-Science-Elvira-Clain-Stefanelli/dp/B0014XR9QA

I have no 'favorite' book but prefer the one that is holding my interest at any given moment. This one is currently $5. I've recommended the waste of more money than this here before and this book on several occasions. It is a thin paperback on the subject of collecting coins before the time such a hobby was open to common folks like us. I explains why collections like the French National and others started by royalty have things you don't. There are several illustrations from art including coins of which the man holding a Nero sestertius made the cover. I only have one Nero sestertius and it is not much in comparison not to mention right facing. Instead, you get a dupondius. Warning: Half of the few pages in the book are devoted to a bibliography on the subject but most of the books listed there are not to be found in your local bookstore.


If a Renaissance painter were to show up at my door to paint my portrait holding a coin, I would have trouble selecting just one.